CALLAWAY – Callaway was turned upside down Saturday by a storm that crept up on Custer County in the day’s early hours.
Unsettling signs could be seen as far as two miles outside the village, with slouching power lines strewn across Callaway Road.
Within the village itself, power had been off since the storm first hit at about 4 in the morning. Huge trees had been snapped in half, barricading roads.
A trampoline, courtesy of 60-mile-per-hour winds, had been folded around a pole like a book cover. The fire station’s tower was bent in half, and the Plant Stand’s roof was shorn from its building as if it weighed no more than the top of a tuna can.
Morgan Park is unrecognizable.
Trees have fallen everywhere; the park’s green grass is now more leaves and limbs than shoots and tufts. Whole root systems have been rotated 90 degrees, leaving enormous craters and wet dirt. Miraculously, nothing fell on the historic first courthouse in the center of the park.
Callaway Chamber of Commerce President Ken Pitkin, in a rare spare moment and against a backdrop of rumbling city trucks, said that while the state of Morgan Park is a tragedy, priority one is returning power to Callaway residents in the face of the ongoing heatwave.
“There’s a lot of widespread damage, everybody seems to be all right, that’s the best part. We can fix the other stuff. “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get to those public areas until we get everybody back on power. Since everybody’s okay, we want everybody to have power because it’s hot.”
Fortunately, no injuries have been reported, and no visible damage could be seen at the school or hospital.
As of 10 a.m., the power outage remains widespread; several businesses have reported power, though residential areas are mostly dark. Cleanup efforts are ongoing, with Pitkin thanking village crews that have worked unceasingly since the storm let up at 4:30 a.m.
Custer County Emergency Management, the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, Village of Callaway Light & Water, and Custer Public Power District are all on the scene, as are a number of private businesses.
